1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to the art of clothes dryers and, more particularly, to an apparatus for use in drying articles having internal cavities in a clothes dryer.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
A clothes dryer is essentially a standard appliance for a household. In general, a clothes dryer includes a cabinet within which is rotatably mounted a drum. A flow of air is drawn into the cabinet, heated, directed over moistened articles of clothing placed in a tumbling pattern within the drum in order to draw the moisture from the clothing, and exhausted. As widely known in the art, this process continues for either a pre-established time period or until a sensing arrangement signals that the clothing articles are dried to a desired level.
In addition to the drying of basic articles of clothing, it has been known to utilize a clothes dryer to dry other wearable articles. For instance, sneakers, shoes, gloves and the like can be placed in the drum for drying purposes. However, because such articles have internal cavities into which the heated air does not readily flow, either the drying time for these articles needs to be prolonged or the articles must be further air dried once removed from the clothes dryer. Of course it would be advantageous to accommodate a more efficient drying arrangement for such specialty articles.
To address this concern, there have been proposed various machines dedicated for use in drying these types of articles. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,076,735, 2,444,195, 2,614,337, 3,154,392, 3,513,564, 3,645,009, 3,793,744, 4,136,464, 4,145,602, 4,198,765, 4,200,993, 4,596,078, 4,768,293, 4,787,153, 5,003,707, 5,058,289, 5,179,790, 5,287,636, 5,570,515, 5,632,099, 5,720,108 and 5,729,908 all pertain to machines specifically designed for use in drying shoes, gloves and other similar articles by directing a flow of heated air into internal cavities of the articles. Obviously, such types of dedicated arrangements have been around for many years, but still are not popular. Basically, it is considered that providing a dedicated machine for this purpose is not cost effective as the need to dry these types of articles is fairly infrequent.
However, when the need arises, it would still be highly desirable to be able to efficiently dry such articles. To this end, it has also been proposed in the art to configure a conventional clothes dryer to accommodate a more efficient drying arrangement for shoes and the like. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,256,616 discloses an arrangement wherein the exhaust duct of a dryer is directed into a supplemental housing within which shoes can be placed. On the other hand, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,677,760 and 5,333,393 teach to mount shoe supporting structure directly within a clothes dryer. In general, providing the shoe supporting structure within the clothes dryer is preferred as the overall machine can be readily adapted for this supplemental drying operation. However, the ""616 arrangement actually ensures a more efficient drying operation given the manner in which the exhaust air is directed about the shoes.
In any event, although numerous attempts have been made in the prior art to provide an efficient drying arrangement for articles having internal cavities which are inherently harder to dry, there still exists a need for an apparatus which can enable a conventional clothes dryer to be effectively used to perform this function. More particularly, there exists a need for an apparatus for drying articles having internal cavities, wherein the apparatus can be readily incorporated into a clothes dryer in such a manner so as to ensure that an adequate supply of heated air will be directed through the internal cavity prior to being exhausted from the clothes dryer.
The present invention is directed to apparatus adapted to be mounted within a conventional clothes dryer in order to enable the dryer to be effectively used in drying specialty articles which define internal cavities, e.g., shoes, sneakers, hats, gloves, mittens and the like. In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the invention, the apparatus includes a plurality of hollow tubes which project from a manifold that is adapted to be releasably attached to an exhaust outlet grill of the clothes dryer. Each of the tubes preferably has a plurality of circumferentially spaced and longitudinally extending ribs on an outer surface thereof and the manifold is provided with a gasket to seat about the exhaust outlet.
In accordance with the most preferred form of the invention, the tubes are made of an elastomeric material which can readily bend in order to accommodate different sized and shaped articles, with the tubes extending into the internal cavities of the articles. The tubes can actually be removed from the manifold and replaced with different sized tubes in order to accommodate a wide range of articles to be dried. In any event, with this construction, heated air for the clothes dryer is drawn into the internal cavities of the articles between the various longitudinal ribs provided about the tubes. The air is then directed through the hollow portions of the tubes and into the manifold in order to reach the outlet for the drum. In this manner, the heated air is forced to flow directly within the internal cavities, thereby assuring that the articles will be effectively dried, both internally and externally.
Additional objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment when taken in conjunction with the drawing wherein like reference numerals referring to corresponding parts in the several views.